City. Park City Premiere

City. Park City, the first 16 mm all resort film, premiered last night (10/4/06) in downtown, you guessed it, Park City, Utah. Rain showers poured throughout the day, imminently threatening the outdoor premiere. Luckily, things cleared up around f5 p.m., and it was on. An autograph signing with Amber Stackhouse, Shaun White, Aaron Bittner, Stevie Bell, Pat Moore, Scotty Arnold and Drew Fuller kicked off at 7 p.m. and City. Park City screened for a massive crowd at 8 p.m. at the base of the town lift.

The movie opens to Shaun White, and an extremely fit Russian actress, relaxing in a mountain chalet atop Park City, White promptly exits the abode and finds himself in a serious Bond inspired chase scene with a gang of pissed off skiers. “I was definitely a Bond fan growing up. I thought the intro in The Spy Who Loved Me would work so well to introduce riders in a snowboard flick. It just evolved from there. Explains Jim Mangan, Director of City. Park City. Jim expounds, “I wanted to do something no other snowboard movie had ever done. That was not only this kind of intro, but also a skit/parody of a James Bond Chase scene to open the movie. When I say never done in a snowboarding movie I mean in the production and what went into it. We didn’t cut any corners.

Aside from the three ample parks spread across the mountain, a handful of special zones were built specifically for the movie—most notably the gap jump over the historic Bonanza Mine Building, and a quarterpipe on the backside of the mountain flanked by more historic buildings and a 100-year-old conveyer belt.

Directly following the screening were the giveaways, gear was raffled off from sponsors including Quiksilver, and DC, and a board was autographed by Shaun on location and given out to one lucky ticket holder. Directly following the giveaways was a double feature showing of Misschief’s all-girl snowboard film, Ro Sham Bo.

The after party at Martin’s must have been jumping off, because by the time I showed up just after 10 p.m. the doors had been “theoretically locked according to PC’s finest. In any event it was a great time. Thanks to Jim and the crew at Park City for having us out.